TY - JOUR
T1 - The Kaji-Hara (housework harassment) debates
T2 - the gendering of housework in contemporary Japan
AU - Hamada, Iori
N1 - Funding Information:
I am immensely grateful to anonymous reviewers for their very helpful comments and suggestions on earlier versions of the manuscript, although any errors are my own and should not tarnish the reputations of these esteemed persons.
Publisher Copyright:
© Copyright © 2019 BAJS.
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - Japan’s gender gap in housework—the second largest in the OECD countries—has come sharp focus with its female employment on the rise. Why are women and men in Japan still struggling to share housework? This article examines this question, analysing relatively newly emerged representations of ‘kaji-hara’. The Japanese neologism ‘kaji-hara’—a shortened form of the phrase ‘housework harassment’—has garnered much public attention, since Japan’s leading home builder Asahi Kasei Homes Corporation (AKHC) launched its ‘Wives’ Housework Harassment’ campaign in 2014. The campaign conveyed a contentious message—that is, it is not husbands, but actually wives, who act as a bottleneck to gender equality in housework. This received a negative backlash, ultimately leading to the phenomenon of what I label here as the ‘kaji-hara debates’. Based upon analysis of AKHC’s campaign ads, its online survey results, literature and media coverage that inform the kaji-hara debates, this article shows the operation of the ‘gendering of housework’, by which housework is gendered and produces gender itself, thereby perpetuating the housework gender gap in the society. It argues that AKHC’s campaign constitutes the gendering of housework, as it represents, assumes and commercialises housework as ‘women’s primary responsibility’ while simultaneously promoting men’s domesticity.
AB - Japan’s gender gap in housework—the second largest in the OECD countries—has come sharp focus with its female employment on the rise. Why are women and men in Japan still struggling to share housework? This article examines this question, analysing relatively newly emerged representations of ‘kaji-hara’. The Japanese neologism ‘kaji-hara’—a shortened form of the phrase ‘housework harassment’—has garnered much public attention, since Japan’s leading home builder Asahi Kasei Homes Corporation (AKHC) launched its ‘Wives’ Housework Harassment’ campaign in 2014. The campaign conveyed a contentious message—that is, it is not husbands, but actually wives, who act as a bottleneck to gender equality in housework. This received a negative backlash, ultimately leading to the phenomenon of what I label here as the ‘kaji-hara debates’. Based upon analysis of AKHC’s campaign ads, its online survey results, literature and media coverage that inform the kaji-hara debates, this article shows the operation of the ‘gendering of housework’, by which housework is gendered and produces gender itself, thereby perpetuating the housework gender gap in the society. It argues that AKHC’s campaign constitutes the gendering of housework, as it represents, assumes and commercialises housework as ‘women’s primary responsibility’ while simultaneously promoting men’s domesticity.
KW - dual-income households
KW - family roles
KW - gender equality
KW - housework allocation
KW - Japan
KW - media representation
KW - social norms
KW - unpaid domestic labour
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85075189497&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/09555803.2019.1684345
DO - 10.1080/09555803.2019.1684345
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85075189497
SN - 0955-5803
VL - 33
SP - 580
EP - 607
JO - Japan Forum
JF - Japan Forum
IS - 4
ER -